THQ running out of cash, seeking 'strategic alternatives'
One of the side effects of delaying your entire slate of upcoming games is the lack of money. With Metro: Last Light, Company of Heroes 2, and South Park: The Stick of Truth all delayed, THQ is running out of money.
One of the side effects of delaying your entire slate of upcoming games is the lack of money. With Metro: Last Light, Company of Heroes 2, and South Park: The Stick of Truth all delayed, THQ is running out of money--and fast.
"Clearly, THQ faces a number of opportunities and challenges," THQ's Brian Farrell said in a recent financial report. "We also face challenges operating with limited capital resources in the highly competitive market for games, and we are working diligently to resolve those challenges."
The company is now seeking "strategic alternatives" to help the company stay afloat. According to VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi, that usually means the company is looking for buyers. A consulting firm, Centerview Partners, will help THQ determine the company's future course.
Unfortunately for THQ, Darksiders 2 did not help the company's bottom line. Sales were below expectations, in spite of having shipped 1.4 million copies.
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, THQ running out of cash, seeking 'strategic alternatives'.
One of the side effects of delaying your entire slate of upcoming games is the lack of money. With Metro: Last Light, Company of Heroes 2, and South Park: The Stick of Truth all delayed, THQ is running out of money.-
I wonder if Darksiders 2 would have been better served with keeping the game scope at the same size of the original. Seemed like they were mistaking Cult hit status with massive sales potential. Seeing Sleeping dogs and Darksiders 2 underperform makes me fear for the future of AAA action-adventure games.
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It is sad but it is also unfortunate that game development financials are so closely guarded that there is the perception that if a game sells millions it must have been a smash success. Modern AAA games are incredibly expensive enterprises, and many games that have sold through millions of units are not even breaking even let alone profitable.
While the real cost of games to consumers has steadily declined over the last decade, the development and marketing costs have increased by at least an order of magnitude, and in some cases two. The economics of AAA game development are making increasingly little sense for all but the biggest publishers, and even they have drastically cut their slates in order to take bigger bets on handfuls of titles.
Interesting times for the industry. I just hope it survives the next few years in some recognizable form.
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Gee, I wonder why Danny Bilson left in May 2012. Of course, the flipside is that Jason Rubin has to clean up after Bilson's mess, which had some success stories, but also had stuff like Homefront's fizzle, and Insane languishing and eventually getting canned.
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I'm wondering why the first DLC is taking forever.
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SR4 was awesome!
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err, SR3! shut up
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THQ should just take whatever money they have and bet it on a horse. It is probably their best chance.
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Just come out with Saints Row 4 already
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Die. Die, die, die, die, die, die. Die.
Ty THQ. -
If THQ dissolves, what happens to Relic? WHAT HAPPENS TO HOMEWORLD?
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But what about the IP? I will cry tears of blood if Homeworld goes System Shock on us.
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I'm just thinking worst case scenarios where THQ ham handedly force relic to sell homeworld, or dissipates the developer entirely and sells the assets to investors or something terrible like that.
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Yeah, fair enough. I can't see anyone buying THQ outright. Hopefully a smart publisher snaps up relic as an awesome studio in its entirity, ditto Vigil, but I can equally see if just being a messing feeding frenzy for licenses. Warner grabbed Mortal Kombat and Netherealm, so I guess something positive like that could still happen for THQ's finest.
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I guess if we're lucky, EA might buy homeworld and turn it info a facebook strategy game!!!! :D
HEADS WOULD ROLL!
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[deleted]
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:: cries ::
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WHAR DOW3 GIVE ME MORE SPACE MARINES
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They have killer franchises, what's up with the delays?! Ship'n'patch!
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well killer as in being good, not necessarily sales numbers.
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They've still got hope for the Wii U version! I'm crying here :(
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Its too bad as they make pretty good games.
Maybe Valve picks them up?!?!-
I don't think that's the kind of thing Valve would want to do. Seems incompatible with their business model.
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God no, why would they ever do that?
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They could pick up the homeworld IP and release homeworld 1 and 2 on steam. I think we should all perform a write in campaign to convince gaben to do this! Who is with me?!?!?!?
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Microsoft should grab them and make them Windows/Xbox exclusives.
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Like that was a good idea with Rare ROFLAO
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MARKETING
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I think they assumed they'd be able to afford larger teams at the outset of the projects when things weren't quite as dire and when crunch time came they couldn't, hence the delays.
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NOOOO I need more 40k games!
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Just release the South Park game already, no real gamer is going to buy it and its based off a tv show (which I'm a fan of and can even admit has never had a fun game) so most likely its gonna suck anyway. That should leave some extra money lying around to work with.
